Yukari Yamashita turns 16 years old today, 3月12日！！！Wishing Yukari chan a great day with family and friends, and may the coming years bring great joy and lots of love to this hard working and lovely young lady!!

Below is a beautiful fan made tribute to Yukari chan,made before the election- hoping to push Yukari chaninto a ranking:

With thanks to paburii

Sadly, Yukari did not rank...... But wait, is it ranking that is thesingle point of accomplishment for Yukari and other girls who workso hard in improving their performance abilities?

As the cheer team at Ajinomoto Stadium toldthe girls, the main point was to try, despite the massivefear and insecurity of putting yourself up for a national vote,and to try your best. And in the end, to love yourself, no matterthe external outcome.

Look in the backrows, at the unranked girls - there aremassive amounts of talent and effort in those rows,Girls who don't give up, who congratulate their friends who rank...

And Yukari posted this just a couple ofhours ago:

She said: ohappy everyone!! ( a play on ohayo)It's Sunday! Are you relaxing? Or doing school work, or working?

SKE48 Team KII member Yamashita Yukari has announced that she will be graduating from the group.

This was announced on February 4 during Team KII's performance at SKE48 Theater. Following the concert, Yamashita uploaded a message on the group's official website, stating, "I had been thinking about it since 2 years ago, and last year, I talked about it with many different people. I wanted to let everyone know as soon as possible, so that we could cherish the time that we have left together."

Details on her graduation will be announced via the group's official website in the near future.